Description
This beautiful globular vase was made in 1923 and is the earliest recorded example of Unica by Andries Dirk Copier. It is fully signed, marked and verified and has no damage at all.
The simple form has been decorated with application of crackle glaze (in antimony/black) which has given an excellent result here, revealed by the graduated distribution of the glaze, so that it looks a little like a city map; showing ‘wider avenues, smaller roads and tiny side streets’. The top of the vessel has been colored in a light amethyst (purple) color. Our best efforts at photography have not been able to fully capture this subtle coloration. Please look at the pictures carefully.
Andries Copier (1901-1991) is the undisputed master of Dutch glass, He started working with his father at Leerdam in 1914, soon mastered the skills required and was quickly promoted to become the factory’s Artistic Director. He also founded the Leerdam Glass School, and established Royal Leerdam as an international brand. In retirement he worked with Peter Novotny, Lino Tagliapietrra and Bernard Heesen.
In 1923 Copier (previously occupied with production of decorative and commercial factory-glass), made his first experiments in designing glass as ‘Art’ and these early ‘Unica’ pieces were immediately a big hit (ref, Karel Wasch, “Toegepaste Kunst in Nederland”, 1927). First conceived as ‘experiments and finger exercises’, they were immediately acclaimed by the critics; it was the beginning of a new and lucrative career for Copier, and significant as the beginning of the studio glass movement.
Over the next 50 years Copier produced nearly 40,000 unique numbered pieces in a wide range of styles and techniques.
Although Copier’s spectacular career has been described extensively in more than 30 books, the search to recreate a full catalogue of his Unica work was only feasible with the dawn of the internet. Paul Spannenberg’s Leerdam Unica website now shows pictures of many hundreds which have been found in private collections around the world. The publication of ‘Copier- Ideas in Glass, Unica and More’ (Dieter Enke, Arnoldsche, 2009) has further added to the detail about this remarkable series.
In the first period (1923-1925) Copier made circa 1400 unica items, numbered in sequence. In 1926 he began to put a year-letter before the number (with 1926 being A, and 1947 being Z)
The earliest example of Unica shown by Dieter Enke (see above) is #330. The lowest number found by Paul Spannenberg (see above) is #52.
The item for sale here is #13: by far the earliest signed and marked example that has so far been located.
Measurements: Height 5.11 in
Diameter 4.92 in.
